Wed: Miss America 2012 Offers Encouragement to 150 S. Fla. Children Who Have a Parent in Prison

Laura Kaeppeler To Be Given First-ever Angel Tree Star of Victory Award 
for Overcoming Challenges Related to Having an Incarcerated Parent

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., June 25, 2012—This Wednesday, more than 150 prisoners' kids at a South Florida sports camp will be given hope and encouragement from one of their role models: Miss America 2012 Laura Kaeppeler - once a prisoner's child herself - who today advocates for mentoring children with an incarcerated parent as part of her platform as the reigning Miss America.

WHAT:     
A ceremony at Prison Fellowship's Champion Sports Camp to present the inaugural Angel Tree Star of Victory Award to Miss America 2012.

The Angel Tree Star of Victory Award will be given annually by Prison Fellowship to the person who best exemplifies the courage and determination necessary to overcome the adversity of a parent's incarceration, without regard to whether he or she has personally benefited from Prison Fellowship's Angel Tree program. The award recipient will have reached a level of achievement proving that the incarceration of a parent need not erase a child's hopes for the future.

WHEN:    
Wed, June 27, noon – 1:15 p.m. ET

WHERE:     
Highlands Christian Academy
501 NE 48th Street
Pompano Beach, FL 33064

PROGRAM:    
The program will include:

• Remarks from Miss America 2012 Laura Kaeppeler
• A Q&A with Miss America 2012 and child campers
• Personal testimony from Christina Allen, a South Florida native who at age 13 began receiving Christmas gifts through Angel Tree following the incarceration of her father. Today, Allen is an Angel Tree volunteer at her Broward County church
• Miss America 2003 Erika Harold, a Prison Fellowship board member, will emcee

• On-site interviews with Miss America 2012 June 27 from 11:30 a.m. – noon ET (advance interviews upon request)
• On-site interviews with current and other former prisoners' children who have been mentored through Prison Fellowship's Angel Tree program, including former Angel Tree recipient-turned-volunteer Christina Allen (advance interviews upon request)
• On-site interviews with emcee Miss America 2003 Erika Harold, a Prison Fellowship board member who works closely with children of prisoners, understands their challenges, and can relate to their insecurities, as she was a victim of racial bullying and sexual harassment as a youth (advance interviews upon request)
• Photo opp of kids of prisoners interacting with Miss America 2012 during Q&A and autograph/photo session following end of official program

Prison Fellowship's Angel Tree is the only nationwide, year-round effort that reaches out exclusively to children who have a parent in prison.


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